Keith Grammar School and peer mediation

Aims

The peer mediation project, funded by the Laidlaw Trust through the Local Community Network, arose from the aim to give pupils a stake in developing the school’s ethos and involving them more closely in its life and community. The project provides an opportunity for pupils involved in a dispute to enter voluntarily into an arrangement to resolve the problem collaboratively with trained pupil peer mediators. Pupils respond very positively to the opportunity and clearly appreciate the power of minor disputes being resolved without teacher intervention.

During March 2007 two members of staff and 19 volunteer pupils from S1 to S5 took part in peer mediation training provided by Safeguarding Communities and Reducing Offending (SACRO) Highland. This group forms the mediation team. The mediation service has operated since May 2007 and the team have very successfully resolved a number of disputes to the evident satisfaction of all involved.